Formula for grading New Mexico schools could change

SANTA FE - New Mexico legislators on Friday approved a bill to revamp the state's much-criticized formula for grading its 830 public schools.

The existing grading system is one of Gov. Susana Martinez's signature programs, so she could keep it in place by vetoing the bill. Martinez's administration opposed the reform initiative all during the legislative session.

State Sen. Howie Morales led the fight to change the grading formula for schools. He said the model used by the Martinez administration is confusing and unfair to schools and their larger communities.

Morales' argument was bolstered when Paul Aguilar, a deputy secretary of public education, last year said the existing grading formula was so complex that only five people in the state understood it.

Under Morales' bill, the state would continue giving schools grades of A through F, but the way they are calculated would change.

Currently, 90 percent of grades for elementary and middles schools are based on standardized test scores in two subjects, Morales said. For high schools, standardized tests account for 60 percent of the grade and only 11th-graders' scores are counted toward a school's rating.

Morales, D-Silver City, said the existing system is not an accurate assessment of how well or how poorly schools are doing overall. His bill would lessen the reliance on standardized tests and create a broader-based formula.

"Right now we have the opportunity to test. We need the opportunity to learn," Morales said.

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The alternative grading formula would include factors such as readiness for college or the workplace, attendance, improving truancy rates and students' participation in extracurricular activities.

Morales received wide support for his bill from those working in schools. Among those publicly backing his call to change the grading formula were the Coalition of School Administrators, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation and the Artesia and Santa Fe school districts.

"It took courage for people from the school districts to speak out," Morales said.

Larry Behrens, a spokesman for the Public Education Department, said the existing grading system was created in 2011 with the help of school professionals and has been widely praised in national circles.

"In fact, New Mexico's A-F system holds us accountable for over 20,000 students who were previously uncounted" in federal school ratings, Behrens said.

But in New Mexico, criticism of the grading model has been steady.

Sen. Bill Soules, himself a high school teacher of statistics, said one flaw is that the Martinez administration built the system on a grading curve.

When one school rises, another must fall back, said Soules, D-Las Cruces.

Morales said this means that a school that actually is producing better students can be downgraded anyway under the current system.

Members of the House of Representatives voted 37-30 for Morales' bill. Democrats supported it and Republicans opposed.

An earlier vote in the Senate saw Morales' bill approved 23-18, also on a party-line vote.

Morales' bill would create a 21-member council to rework the grading formula. A temporary grading system would be in place for two years, and then a new model would be operational for the 2015-16 school year.

Morales' bill is Senate Bill 587.

Milan Simonich, Santa Fe bureau chief of Texas-New Mexico Newspapers, can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or 505-820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com